Is An Alcohol-Free Lifestyle Visible & Attractive?

I started working in alcohol treatment in 2008, when an alcohol-free lifestyle wasn’t visible or attractive. It was heavily stigmatised.

Social media was in its infancy (pre instagram / pre influencer), and if you wanted sober inspiration, you had to actively buy a book or walk into treatment.

Alcohol was the default, and the only script we had to socialise. We had decades of alcohol marketing insisting that alcohol was essential for having fun.

Pub culture. Party culture. MTV culture. Wine culture. 

Prevention tried to counter that with "drink responsibly" but what does that mean? It focused on guilt, fear, and using a stick. 

Industry funded messaging tried to balance the message of "don’t drink.. but keep drinking."

If 608,000 people in England are dependent on alcohol, that means over 44 million aren’t ~ not yet. And if prevention is going to be effective, an alcohol-free lifestyle needs to be both visible & attractive.

It sounds simple ~ but that’s the foundation of how we approach alcohol prevention at Arclett.

Because if people can’t see the alternative, it’s easy to assume drinking is the only option.

Without visibility, there’s no social proof ~ no permission to do things differently. Just a quiet unspoken belief that alcohol is essential to be social.

If not drinking doesn’t look appealing, who’s going to choose it? What’s the alternative? Staying home while everyone else goes out?

Making an alcohol-free lifestyle attractive helps create a new norm ~ one where people feel comfortable & excited to explore sober curiosity.

I’m not anti-alcohol. I’m pro-choice. But for that choice to feel real we need to humanise an alcohol-free lifestyle.

We don't focus on the risks because our body & intuition do a good job of reminding us to take it easy, via a hangover. 

In 2025, people are responding to the carrot ~ the benefits. So we focus on the benefits ~ more time, energy, money, a clearer headspace..

We're trying to make sober curiosity something people want to lean into.

Not just because they have to. 

But because they want to.